Is It News: Attacking the Messenger

I have been reporting the news for more than 30 years now and in that time; I’ve learned a few things. I have two clippings in my desk that have served me well over those years. The first is a “Calvin and Hobbes” cartoon. Calvin and Hobbes are the creation of cartoonist Bill Watterson. Calvin is a small boy and Hobbes is his stuffed Tiger, with whom he has imaginary adventures. In this particular cartoon, Calvin is yelling at his TV set: “You call this news?! This isn’t informative! This is a sound bite! This is entertainment! This is sensationalism! Fortunately, that’s all I have the patience for.”

The other clipping is from a 1940’s era Journalism textbook I found in an old book sale. In a chapter called, “What Is News”, I found the following summary:



1 ordinary man + 1 ordinary life = 0

1 ordinary man + 1 extraordinary life = News

1 ordinary husband + 1 ordinary wife = 0

1 husband + 3 wives = News

1 bank cashier + 1 wife + 7 children = 0

1 bank cashier - $10,000 = News

1 chorus girl + 1 bank president + $10,000 = News

1 man + 1 auto + 1 gun + 1 quart = News

1 man + 1 wife + 1 row + 1 lawsuit = News

1 man + 1 achievement = News

1 woman + 1 adventure or achievement = News

1 ordinary man + 1 ordinary life of 79 years = 0

1 ordinary man + 1 ordinary life of 100 years = News



It’s not exactly a textbook definition of “news” but I think it makes its point. It never seems to fail, though. Whenever someone sees a news story he doesn’t like, he always feels the necessity to attack the messenger and usually does so by questioning our news judgment. It’s not enough to say, “I didn’t like your story about _____.” It’s always some personal attack such as “You don’t know what news is” or “That kind of poor judgment about what is newsworthy is why I don't watch.” I have a pretty thick skin (you have to in this business), but I can’t help but feel that the many people have a pretty clouded view of what news really is -- and isn’t.
So, this week, I thought I’d turn to a fellow journalist Deborah Potter to explain things from where we sit. Deborah has more than 20 years in the business, including 16 as a network correspondent for CBS News and CNN. Here’s a portion of an article she wrote for the U.S. Department of State publication, Handbook of Independent Journalism.



“The answer to the question “What is news?” may seem obvious. News is what is new; it’s what’s happening. Look it up in the dictionary, and you’ll find news described as “a report of recent events or previously unknown information.” But most of the things that happen in the world every day don’t find their way into the newspaper or onto the air in a newscast.

So what makes a story newsworthy enough to be published or broadcast? The real answer is, it depends on a variety of factors. Generally speaking, news is information that is of broad interest to the intended audience, so what’s big news in Buenos Aires may not be news at all in Baku. Journalists decide what news to cover based on many of the following “news values”:

Timeliness

Did something happen recently or did we just learn about it? If so, that could make it newsworthy. The meaning of “recently” varies depending on the medium, of course. For a weekly news magazine, anything that happened since the previous edition the week before may be considered timely. For a 24-hour cable news channel, the timeliest news may be “breaking news,” or something that is happening this very minute and can be covered by a reporter live at the scene.

Impact

Are many people affected or just a few? Contamination in the water system that serves your town’s 20,000 people has impact because it affects your audience directly. A report that 10 children were killed from drinking polluted water at a summer camp in a distant city has impact too, because the audience is likely to have a strong emotional response to the story. The fact that a worker cut a utility line is not big news, unless it happens to cause a blackout across the city that lasts for several hours.

Proximity

Did something happen close to home, or did it involve people from here? A plane crash in Chad will make headlines in N'Djamena, but it’s unlikely to be front-page news in Chile unless the plane was carrying Chilean passengers.

Controversy

Are people in disagreement about this? It’s human nature to be interested in stories that involve conflict, tension, or public debate. People like to take sides, and see whose position will prevail. Conflict doesn’t always entail pitting one person’s views against another. Stories about doctors battling disease or citizens opposing an unjust law also involve conflict.

Prominence

Is a well-known person involved? Ordinary activities or mishaps can become news if they involve a prominent person like a prime minister or a film star. That plane crash in Chad would make headlines around the world if one of the passengers were a famous rock musician.

Currency

Are people here talking about this? A government meeting about bus safety might not draw much attention, unless it happens to be scheduled soon after a terrible bus accident. An incident at a football match may be in the news for several days because it’s the main topic of conversation in town.

Oddity

Is what happened unusual? As the saying goes, “If a dog bites a man, that is not news. But if a man bites a dog, it's news!” The extraordinary and the unexpected appeal to our natural human curiosity.

What makes news also depends on the makeup of the intended audience, not just where they live but who they are. Different groups of people have different lifestyles and concerns, which make them interested in different types of news. A radio news program targeted at younger listeners might include stories about music or sports stars that would not be featured in a business newspaper aimed at older, wealthier readers. A weekly magazine that covers medical news would report on the testing of an experimental drug because the doctors who read the publication presumably would be interested. But unless the drug is believed to cure a well-known disease, most general-interest local newspapers would ignore the story.”

On any given day, in any given newscast, we are trying to reach roughly 60,000 viewers; viewers whose tastes and interests are as varied as they are, and we have just half an hour to do that in. Admittedly, there will be occasions when we air stories that you don’t like or that you take exception to, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know our jobs.

Downing Bolls